


Shared Pain

by MandolinDoodler



Series: Hiccup/Viggo AUs [4]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canonical Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25978774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MandolinDoodler/pseuds/MandolinDoodler
Summary: Soulmate AU where you can feel your soulmate's pain.Hiccup never thought much of the scars on Viggo's neck just as Viggo hardly considered Hiccup's missing leg to be significant. They live in a world of danger and constant war, so pain like theirs isn't uncommon.
Relationships: Viggo Grimborn/Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
Series: Hiccup/Viggo AUs [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1855789
Comments: 4
Kudos: 61





	Shared Pain

A seven year old Hiccup wakes gasping for air, the feel of a monster's claws tearing through his throat fresh in his mind. His hands desperately go to his neck to stop a flow of blood that isn't there, stifle a pain that isn't his. Tears cloud his vision and he can barely distinguish the form of his father rushing toward him and enveloping him in his arms.

"It's okay, son, you're okay." One of Stoick's hands pulls Hiccup's away from his throat, the other wraps tighter around the child as he sobs. "It's your soulmate. Wherever she is, she's gotten hurt real bad. You're feeling her pain, but don't worry it'll fade soon."

It does fade, but not until late into the morning. The entire time Stoick stays with Hiccup, comforts him when all he can do is cry. He allows his son to stay home from the forge and rest. Over the next week, Hiccup's neck continues to throb and pain spikes at random times startling the boy to his knees while he fights to keep the tears at bay.

The rest of the village looks on in pity. They've all felt their soulmate's pain before, many have even been by their soulmate's sides while they share the pain. And while Hiccup suffers they speculate about his other half, where they are, if they'll even survive their injury. They watch closely waiting for the day that Hiccup emerges from his house with dull eyes after having to feel his soulmate die. What a cruel fate that would be, to be a child of Berk experiencing his soulmate's death without ever having known them when so many times it's the other way around.

The death never comes. Eventually the pain completely fades and Hiccup makes it out with the light still in his eyes.

Over the years the incident is forgotten. The only speculation the village has about Hiccup's soulmate is wondering who could possibly be the other half of someone so reckless and weak and useless. Their pity goes out to the unknown figure in some far off land and they pray that either the two never meet or that Hiccup gets shipped off to be their problem one day.

When he’s fifteen, Hiccup battles the Red Death and loses his leg. At night when phantom pains keep him up, the teen remembers waking up to the burning memory of claws in his neck as a child and worries over what his soulmate is feeling right now. Can they still feel their leg? Is the pain as crippling for them as it is for Hiccup? On rainy days, do they have to stay home because their leg is sending stabbing pain up their entire being?

He hopes it isn't so intense for them.

The first time Hiccup meets Viggo he doesn't notice the scars on the man's neck. When he does eventually see them, he hardly thinks much of them aside from a twinge in his neck at the memory of pain, but he's met plenty of people with scars and none of them have proven to be his soulmate so why would he ever consider Viggo-freakin'-Grimborn as a candidate for that position? No, it's just a coincidence that he can ignore.

It's the battle atop the volcano that gets him thinking. On their way back to their huts, Hiccup's face begins to burn so badly he falls off Toothless midair. Astrid catches him before he hits the ground, but Hiccup doesn't notice because the pain is blinding and there's a ringing in his ears and tears falling down his cheeks and someone's grabbing his hands to keep him from scratching at wounds that aren't there. He comes to hours later in his hut with Toothless by his side and the other riders waiting on the lower level.

The vision through his left eye is fuzzy, just blobs and shadows that warp his view. When the other riders join him upstairs, he keeps a hand over his eye so they're clearer and to keep the dizziness away.

"It felt like lava was poured onto my face." Hiccup admits to them. One look into their eyes and he knows they're thinking along the same line as him, that it can't be a coincidence that his soulmate suffered volcano related injuries at the same time their enemy was dropped into a volcano.

There's a long silence as they come to terms with it. Enemy or not, losing a soulmate isn't to be taken lightly. People can go mad after losing their soulmate in such a tragic and unexpected way. They give Hiccup their condolences, take turns hugging him or giving him reassuring squeezes on his shoulder, then take their leave to give him time to mourn.

Hiccup doesn't mourn.

Not because he hates Viggo so much he can't mourn the man but because he isn't entirely convinced he's gone. He's heard villagers talk about the loss of a soulmate. It's more than feeling the other's pain in their final moments, it's feeling the bond snap in two, feeling as half of your soul drifts off to oblivion, it's an unending emptiness that drags you down and tempts you into doing whatever it takes to make yourself complete again.

Hiccup doesn't feel any of that. All he feels is the sting of his face, the pain having dulled to be more like a sunburn than the inferno it was a few hours ago.

Astrid brings him food when evening hits. He picks at it, eating only a fraction of what's on his plate as his friend watches Toothless eat the fish she brought for him. She doesn't say anything and neither does Hiccup. When he decides he can't stomach any more, Astrid takes the plate and basket from the fish. She stops at the top of the stairs.

"Do you really think it was him?"

It makes sense to Hiccup. The similarities are there - the parts of their personalities that balanced when they interacted, the scars, and suddenly he can recall every time he's witnessed Viggo get hurt and felt the throb of pain. There was always something that drew him to Viggo the same way he's seen Astrid and Heather gravitate towards one another, as well as other soulmates on Berk. And he remembers the way Viggo's gaze would linger on his prosthetic leg and a darkness would fill his eyes as if he knew what it felt like to lose a leg.

"I don't know who else it could be," Hiccup answers honestly. Astrid doesn't ask if he thinks Viggo is alive and Hiccup is grateful for that. Instead, she nods solemnly and leaves.

He waits until he knows she's out of sight, then puts his leg on and gestures for Toothless to follow him out the back door. Together they sneak out of the outpost and take flight when they're in the woods, heading towards the volcano. Once there they circle above getting as close as they dare when the lava is bubbling so dangerously. Hiccup scans inside the volcano then around the top and sides for any sign of someone trying to escape or take cover.

He's been waiting for the empty feeling all day, preparing for the heartache, but still nothing has changed. So maybe Viggo is alive. Maybe Hiccup can find him and help him. They can confirm their soulmate bond and if it's true then maybe they can try again. Or maybe they aren't soulmates and that means Hiccup can move on, try to find his actual soulmate.

For hours they search. Toothless grows more concerned as Hiccup becomes desperate. The nightfury can feel his rider's breathing shift to something more erratic, hear his heart speed up, sense the tightness in the teen's chest as he realizes Viggo is nowhere they can find him. By now the man has been long lost to the boiling lava within the volcano. His mind tells him to go home, he wasn't your soulmate so let him go. His heart is telling him to keep looking because it doesn't make sense and even if he isn't your soulmate he's the only person that's ever appreciated your intelligence and challenged you- how can you let that go?

He's too tired to go home so him and Toothless find a safe place to huddle together in the woods for the night. After he's safely tucked in his dragon's wings, Hiccup closes his eyes and focuses on the sting of his face. Pain that isn't his means he still has a soulmate out there waiting for him. It may not be Viggo, who was the closest Hiccup has found for a match, but it would be someone like Viggo, of that he was sure. He falls asleep to the thought of someone far away with dark hair and warm brown eyes.

Months later he's meeting Viggo in the woods, sitting across the fire from the man as they come down from their fight and gather their thoughts. It's the first time since his "death" that Hiccup has been alone with him.

When the man showed up with Johann and Krogan, the riders didn't know what to do. It was Fishlegs voicing his fears that Hiccup would use the older man to fill the emptiness in his soul that spurred the group into keeping the two apart at all costs. They were under the impression that Hiccup felt his soulmate die after the volcano incident, so they had no reason to believe Viggo was Hiccup's soulmate. But Hiccup knew better and tried to steal a chance to talk to the dragon hunter at every encounter. The riders were having none of it.

Now Hiccup has his chance and he can't even find the words to ask all the questions that have plagued him since the day the dragon hunter fell into the volcano. All he can do is stare at the scar marring Viggo's face exactly where Hiccup had felt the burns months ago.

"I used to think myself quite handsome before falling into that volcano." Their eyes meet over the flames. The scar is gruesome but Hiccup doesn't think it takes away from the hunter's looks. If it means what Hiccup thinks it does, then he'll treasure it for the rest of their lives, touch it with all the love he can muster, make sure Viggo understands that the volcano is what opened Hiccup's mind and the scar it left behind is proof of their bond.

Hiccup shakes his head at Viggo. Words refuse to form on his tongue. He can't convey all his thoughts in this moment, can't find the right way to ask what he needs to. Rather than stare dumbly at the other man, Hiccup pulls his knife from his arm brace. Hands trembling, he lines the blade up with his palm, makes sure he has Viggo's attention, and slices deep enough to draw blood and make him flinch had he not been prepared for it. He sees Viggo's hand twitch, the man's eyebrows furrowing.

"You felt that." Hiccup doesn't need to ask. The fish Viggo was cooking slides into the fire as he stares, dumbfounded, at the teen. It's all the confirmation Hiccup needs that the other hadn't suspected a thing, hadn't truly considered the possibility of Hiccup being his soulmate. And what signs could he have given the hunter in all their time knowing one another? There had been no major injuries to tip him off, nothing more than what any warrior would acquire aside from a missing leg that was lost before they met.

Nothing they say tonight can erase the history between them, the months of war and being enemies, of exploiting each other's weaknesses and reveling in the other's losses. In the end, the only talking they manage is planning revenge on Johann and Krogan. Hiccup agrees to help with the condition that they start over once this mission is done. He wants to get to know his soulmate without a feud between them and Viggo agrees, though he seems far more unsure than Hiccup.

The mission goes well enough up until the point Hiccup feels a series of stabs in his back. That's all the signal he needs that Viggo is in trouble and it spurs him on, makes him rush to their meeting point so he can help his soulmate. The damage the man has sustained is far more than Hiccup anticipated. They don't have the means to patch him up here and by the cacophony of footsteps coming their way, it's unlikely they can sneak out early.

"This is the end for me, my dear Hiccup."

"No," it comes out as a broken whisper, but the next is more forceful, "no. No, this doesn't have to be the end. W-we'll get out of here, we just need to-."

"Hiccup," the teen stops pacing and looks to Viggo. "This is the end of our game. I'll create a distraction so you and Toothless may escape."

"Viggo-"

The former dragon hunter takes Hiccup's hand in his own. "You are more ruthless than you realize, Hiccup. You'll find a way to defeat Krogan and Johann, I'm sure of it." He lets go and leaves a Maces and Talons piece behind - the Accomplice. Hiccup clutches it close to his chest.

He wants to protest, fight for this man that has changed his ways, fight for his  _ soulmate, _ but Viggo is already out the door and charging at the hunters outside. With a heavy heart, him and Toothless bolt out and towards the exit. It takes everything they have to make it out before the mass of lightning can catch them and even though it never touches them Hiccup can feel the electricity flicking across his skin, burning over old scars, cooking him alive.

As the twins set off their grand explosion and the group flies off, Hiccup tries not to focus on the strain of his bond. There's a tightness in his chest, an iron grip on his heart that tells him his soulmate is fading away and there's nothing he can do about it. Tears are already streaming down his face, a sob wretches out of him, his hand hurts from the grip he has on the final gift Viggo gave him, then the bond  _ snaps _ .

His vision goes black.

His ears are ringing.

His lungs stop taking in air.

Suddenly they're crashing onto a sea stack. Hiccup launches himself off Toothless so he can throw up what little is in his stomach. He doesn't see Barf and Belch land, doesn't hear Ruffnut and Tuffnut rush to his side asking what's wrong, doesn't feel them search him for injuries.

All he knows is the vast emptiness of his soul.

Tuffnut holds him and Ruffnut rubs his back soothingly until his senses come back. The first sound he hears is his own broken cries, his lungs heaving to keep up with his anguish. He barely manages to get out the words "Viggo" and "soulmate" in between sobs. It's enough for the twins to put together what happened, realize that what they'd thought all these months was a lie up until this point.

They share a remorseful look above Hiccup's head as they jointly pull their leader tighter into their embrace. Apologies won't bring Viggo back, so they hold him through the night and watch over him when he finally succumbs to sleep, silently promising to make up for their mistakes and his lost soulmate when the sun rises.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I struggled to find a good place to mention it without ruining the flow of the piece, but Hiccup's sight in his left eye does return once Viggo's injuries are relatively healed.  
> 2) Next I want to address Stoick and Valka in this AU bc obviously Stoick would have never felt his bond break and both would still be feeling the other's pain


End file.
